The Way We Hate Love
by Dreamers-Never-Die
Summary: They all hate love. Gaara unloved, Sakura abandoned, Deidara abused, Sasori neglected, Temari damaged and Itachi hated. What happens when they fall in love An arranged marriage, an Akatsuki proposal and unxpected betrayals.
1. Prologue for a Tragedy

**The ages are as follows, Gaara/Sakura – 17, Kankuro – 18, Itachi/Deidara/Sasori/Temari – 19. I may have changed the ages, I might not have as I don't actually know their real ages. If any character seems a little OOC, then blame Marawr (****www. fanfiction. com/ pockymarawr)** **and Adeleane as they were the ones who gave all the info about each characters.**

**For future reference about why they gave me the info, well, I have never actually seen Naruto but I have read enough fanfics and I know enough anime-obsessed people to write about it sufficiently. Read before you judge. Anime-obsessed people (My Dear Anime Groupies) have actually said it's good.**

**And it is quite obvious by my previous statement that I don't own Naruto so don't bother asking and I'm not going to say it again. The plot is mine and mine alone.**

**Reviews Welcome,**

**Insincerely Mine,**

**Dremers-Never-Die**

**(The original twisted mind)**

Prologue to a tragedy.

Snarls greeted her entry into the compound. Screams accompanied by blood-curdling screams and the sound of things hitting and flesh tearing.

Seems they had let the panthers loose today.

Being the expert she was, she figured it would take another hour or so before the handlers managed to restrain the animals from permanently injuring the victims. No, actually it would be before the victims died, not permanent damage. Permanent damage was alright, they could still be hurt more. But death was irreparable.

At least it was when she was the harbinger.

Silently laughing and reveling in the screams, she entered what appeared to be a storage room for dangerous weapons but was really her office. Sitting at the desk that was drowned it iron and steel objects, she had a look at the various people who would be suffering that day.

No one overly important, she mused, debating whether or not to join in on the fun. A.k.a. do her job.

She was still in the middle of this debate when she noticed another scroll, one she hadn't seen previously. Reaching for the scroll, she was almost to see the seal of the Hokage.

Almost.

Not really caring about the implications of receiving such a scroll, she cracked open the seal and started reading.

Her expression never changed from the heartless mask she usually wore but her eyes held a world of emotion.

Marriage to a sociopath.

Garra growled at the sight of the village elders obstructing the way into his house. Instead of killing them like he so wished to, he just stared, unnerving them with his cold, unblinking gaze.

"As the Kazekage," one of the elders intoned morosely, "You know it is your duty to do what is best for the village."

Still sounding like they were at a funeral, the second elder continued, "After much deliberation the council has decided that in these uneasy times, it would be best to strengthen ties with those uncertain of our loyalty-"

The perverted demon inside his head was more interesting, even when he was trying to eat away at my personality, he thought to himself, completely ignoring everything that the elders were saying.

After a literal ten minutes of droning on, the first elder started talking again, finally getting to the point of the long and irritating speech, "Therefore, we have decided that it would be in the best interests of the treaty between our villages, if you – as the Kazekage – took a Leaf koinoichi as a bride."

Handing Garra a scroll with the council's seal on it, they walked away, leaving Gaara alone so that he couldn't vent his fury on them.

Reading the scroll, his eyes widened slightly at what he read, completely unreadable – even to those who knew him best, But the malicious and unsympathetic smile on his face was real enough.

Too real for some.

His bride-to-be was a torture master.


	2. Exploding Clay Puppets

Chapter 1 – Exploding Clay Puppets

Smiling and yet nervous, Tsunade welcomed three of her most powerful and yet still most feared ninja into her office, knowing why she had received the request for a meeting. The same reason she had agreed even though the request had only come in about an hour prior and she had an extremely bust day ahead.

The marriage agreement.

Faking confidence, Tsunade gestured for them to seat themselves. About 35 seconds after they had already taken seats. Feeling way out of her depth with these three apparently harmless nin, she poured herself a cup of what appeared to be water but was actually sake. Very strong sake.

"There is only one opposition to this marriage. Well, two actually. Sasori and Deidara feel they need to object on the grounds that they don't seem to be able to go with me," the girl said, waving a hand in the general direction of the men. "As we have been friends for years, they do not wish for me to go to a foreign village without their protection," she continued managing to sound eloquent even through the noise coming from the noise coming from the two men as they juggled clay balls.

"The contract allows you to take a guard or an entourage with you after all, it will be your wedding and you may need help with the planning and everything. Sasori, Deidara and another may go with you, discounting the guards you will have to accompany you. It seems that there is still enough enmity between our villages that this has become necessary."

As the pink-haired Sakura and the stern-faced Tsunade went into a lengthy discussion about the benefits and disadvantages to becoming the Kazekage's wife.

Sakura may have to do a hospital visits to prove her medical knowledge and skill. Being the Leaf's torture master meant she had to be adept at healing so her victims didn't die on her too quickly. It also provided her with in-depth knowledge of how the body worked and which parts of the anatomy weren't necessary to live.

Unbeknownst to them, as enthralled with the discussion as they were, Sasori and Deidara had started a game. It involved using Sasori's charka strings to manipulate the movement of Deidara's clay balls so that they performed an intricate and beautifully sinister dance.

That was, until the clay balls exploded, sending papers and pieces of wood everywhere, nearly suffocating the four of them with the resulting debris. Guards came thundering in, trying in vain to protect their leader from something that was virtually harmless. All they really did was add to the confusion.

When the rubble was finally cleared, it left an extremely angry Hokage facing down a pouting and pitifully guilty clay artist. Deidara was apologizing profusely for what was, in all actuality, an accident.

It appeared that Deidara had somehow managed to make his clay balls explode as soon as they were in a certain formation. The only way that this particular formation was possible was if Sasori had been controlling them with his puppet strings. Sasori had inconveniently forgotten about this trigger and had manipulated the clay into a formation that he thought was harmless and clever, forgetting where he had seen it before.

Deidara's stupidity and Sasori's rather convenient amnesia were the cause of the clay balls exploding at an inopportune moment, ending up with an angry Hokage, an amused puppeteer, an indifferent Sakura and a destroyed room.

Eventually, Sasori and Deidara had managed to explain themselves out of any trouble except for the cost of the destruction and a bottle of sake.

While Deidara was getting the sake and Sasori was finishing arranging to get the office fixed, Sakura had finished organizing the final details of the wedding arrangement which left her with just the actual wedding and her move to the sand village to organized.

Also, how she was going to 'deal' with a husband.


	3. Feminine, Boys!

Chapter 2 – Feminine, boys!

Traveling to Suna from Konoha was becoming increasingly difficult because of the war everyone thought was coming. The same war that no one actually had any proof that it existed. But there was still the threat of Oroichimaru and Sasuke lingering in the back of everyone's minds.

Times of war meant times were alliances needed to be established and strengthen and enemies were punished and oppressed.

Now that was the fun part.

It was only two days until she was due to meet the Kazekage. The same person who just happened to be her future husband.

And a sociopathic killer.

The only downside besides the whole 'consummating' the marriage thing was the fact that he was – by all accounts – reformed. It would have been a lot easier if he was still a heartless killer. At least that way they would have had something in common.

But, because he was 'nice' nowadays, nicer then he had been anyway, then Sakura would have to keep up the whole 'nice little medic girl' act that had the whole of Konoha duped. It had even succeeded to the point that – even after horrific proof – Lee was infatuated by her mere presence, entirely convinced that she would do no wrong.

At least it would be good practice. Although there was no way there was going to go the rest of the month, let alone her whole life, without harming someone intentionally.

But that was another issue, entirely unrelated to the current problem, which had started about the time that Sasori told Deidara that he would have to be Sakura's maid of honor because he looked so much like a girl. Deidara retaliated by knocking Sasori out and dressing him – while unconscious – in a short, short dress and glued flowers to the backs of his hands, so that – in Deidara's opinion – Sasori would have to be the flower girl.

I went on for hours until Deidara put his hand over Sasori's mouth to stop him shouting that Deidara was really a girl. For some reason, unknown to them, Deidara's left hand-mouth decided to make out with Sasori, scandalizing the both of them.

Now, Deidara was throwing exploding objects at Sasori while Sasori blocked and aimed sharp objects controlled by his charka strings at Deidara, trying to get in a good shot or at least shut up his persistent whining.

Sakura and a group of heavily armed guards came across this sight when the responded to the neighbors' complaints of screaming and the sound of breaking things, alerting the village guard of a possible domestic dispute.

Apparently they had thought Deidara was a girl.

Screaming so loud and so high pitched that they thought he was being raped, Deidara launched himself at an unsuspecting Sasori and started slapping him in such a way that the guards, Sasori and Sakura could only laugh at obvious and alarming resemblance to a scorned or disgusted girl.

It didn't help Sasori's predicament in any way.

Their audience had recovered from their bout of laughter only to start laughing again as Deidara started trying to scratch Sasori, all the while calling him a 'bitch, un'.

It didn't help the Sasori fell asleep in the middle of all this.

Disgruntled and annoyed that he no longer had anybody to torment, as petty as it was; Deidara stood up and straightened out his clothes, re-tied his messy hair and walked out of the apartment, adopting a casual swagger that had guys looking twice to see if it really was guy.

Insulting Deidara all the more and only adding fuel to the fire that was his plans for revenge.

Back inside the apartment that had housed the initial fight, Sakura assisted with the cleaning up and clearing of the house and Sasori's wounds, as superficial as they were.

The whole time that his wounds were being cleaned up – note cleaned not healed as he is a puppet – Sasori was quiet, seemingly contemplating the events that he had just gone through. It was really unusual for Deidara to act so… bitchy.

Eventually, Sasori had come to the conclusion that Deidara must have been PMSing.

Even though he was a guy.

And guys can't PMS.

Can they?

Meanwhile, in the sand village of Konoha, one very angry wind konoichi was facing down her very regretful brother.

Screaming unintelligibly at him, Temari started to make her iron fan larger and larger, preparing to throw it at him or sweep him out the door.

All this because he had glued glass into her shoes.

Which had originally been Gaara's idea, even though Gaara himself would never admit it, even under pain of torture.

Either way, Kankuro was being threatened by his sister to make amends or else suffer the consequences. And Kankuro had suffered enough bruises at the capable hands of his sister to know that she wasn't joking about wanting to hit him and the possibly break him into millions of pieces.

Gaara sat back at his desk – yes they were in his office, not that anyone knew why – and tried to continue with the paperwork that kept piling up because he had never actually wanted to be Kazekage. That was until he realized the potential for power.

Although he was trying to be nice, to make his position as Kazekage more secure, he was sorely tempted to just give up on the idea and slaughter his two siblings – his only blood relatives and the only ones who could actually stand to be in a room with him without wetting their pants – because they wouldn't shut up and let go of the petty argument that he had orchestrated, purely for the amusement of watching people fight.

Now that he couldn't kill anyone important and it would be way too suspicious if his siblings randomly went missing, Gaara sought to entertain himself by making other people fight and harm each other.

But, because he didn't want to create an uproar in the village, he had to rely on his siblings and seek enjoyment out of their constant petty squabbles.

By Kami, the only reason he hadn't killed them already was to defy his worthless father and uncle by leaving alive the people they had thought he would kill first. Gaara would grudgingly admit – to himself at least – that he was even starting to respect their abilities and how he could use them to his own personal advantage.

Speaking of personal, wasn't his bride-to-be meant to arrive only the following day? And he hadn't even arranged for any accommodation for her and her expected entourage.

Mentally shrugging it off, Gaara disrupted the fight between his siblings – by scaring them, of course – and ordered them to get the arrangements seen to. Really it meant that Temari and Kankuro did all the work of making his future wife and friends comfortable while he could worry about more important things.

Like power.

And the perverted asshole of a demon, Shukaku.


	4. False Innocence

Chapter 3 – Angels, Demons and False Innocence.

Dreamers never die.

Good thing that this guy never had the chance to dream, though nightmares weren't unusual for him.

Grinning sadistically, Deidara picked up the blades at his feet and proceeded to make sure this guy never had a dream or a nightmare again.

Sasori was still enjoying himself by tormenting their victim with thoughts of food and water, only to make them suffer by knowing that they were never actually going to be fed.

Usually they would have been fed a healthy amount of food so the didn't die prematurely of starvation. But, in this case, the person paying them to torture their latest victim wanted maximum pain and suffering in a minimum amount of time, focusing on making him hurt instead.

The reason the victim was currently dying was because their current employer had decided that he didn't want to be faced with the guilt of putting somebody through so much pain.

For some reason, it had been deemed unethical to make people hurt so bad that they went so far that they were on the brink of death but never reached what they seen as the end of everything. Including the suffering. Which is exactly why the victims were pulled back into the land of the living, just so they could suffer some more.

While Deidara and Sasori were, uh, 'taking care' of their latest victim, Sakura was attempting to teach a new recruit the easiest way to strip muscle fibers on a living victim. It also happened to be the most painful way possible without actually killing the person they were practicing on.

"OK, now first you need to insert the scalpel here," she instructed, pointing towards a pre-made mark on the tied-up mans left bicep. Impatiently, Sakura continued, "you will need to cut a hole in the flesh the size and shape of the muscle so you can see every individual fiber. Stop the body from bleeding out by using your charka to pinch the blood vessels in the shoulder, so that blood cannot travel to this part of the body. With those miniscule things that sort of look like tweezers, seize the end of one – and only one – of the muscle fibers and strip them from the main muscle mass."

As Sakura demonstrated this to her student she was rewarded with a scream of agony. Smiling and utterly glowing with happiness, she made her new student practice how dto do this effectively; setting something that was akin to homework but a lot more fun.

For the torturer, anyway.

Gaara growled at the man who was now prostrate at his feet. With a mere flicker of his mind, Garra went the man into a wall that happened to be three rooms away, smirking gleefully at the look of pain and sheer terror on the village elders face.

"How dare you!" he roared.

For good measure he added a scowl and a strange noise that was somewhere between a growl and a scream.

He wasn't actually angry. He had just wanted an excuse to hurt somebody and the near-dead man pinned to the wall had been stupid enough to give him the perfectly legal opportunity.

He was a lying traitorous spy.

Not that it would really matter because the man was dying rather painfully anyway. Gaara had already 'extracted' all of the necessary information that he was able to. Now he was just entertaining himself by drawing out the mans suffering as long as physically possible. Well, until Gaara got bored with the crying idiot.

Or the guards busting in to investigate all the screaming they had heard.

_Certainly puts a damper on the mood_, Gaara thought sourly, _I really need to get soundproofing so they don't bust in again as I'm trying to kill somebody. Oh, well, it just means that I am going to need to… _fix_ the situation. Can't have people spreading bad rumors._

Snarling, he set about doing just that.

Three minutes later, Gaara was found sitting at his desk, doing the immediate paperwork. All the while thinking up new and extremely inventive ways to 'test' his new bride when she arrived in Suna in three days time.

_I wonder how long she'll survive._

Sakura slowly and carefully packed her every belonging for her sudden and unexpected move. A week really wasn't that much warning time. Her mother would have helped and even went to the length of offering a hand.

Sakura had politely declined, making up some bullshit about wanting to be alone so she could properly say goodbye to everything that had been constant in her life.

In reality, she just didn't want anybody to see the various sharp implements she had to pack inconspicuously as to avoid detection by the guards in the sand village. If her mother knew just how many kunai and … other weapons were in her house then she would go ballistic.

Either that or pass out.

Humming to a silent tune, Sakura starting folding the linens and all of the homey things she would be required to take with her. Apparently the Kazekage wasn't used to having guests, suggesting such a thing that she might be so inclined as to bring her own things to his mansion so she felt a little more at home then she would have otherwise. It was a clever disguise.

Not that you would really think that Gaara would have had many guest that remained alive long enough to take up residence in one of the guest rooms.

But that was something else entirely.

Now to decide how long she should let her betrothed live.


	5. You're A Pretty GUY?

Chapter 4 – You're a pretty… _GUY_?

They had been on the road to Suna for a grand total of three hours before the complaints started.

Firstly Deidara was getting hounded by one of their escort who thought that he was a girl and wouldn't accept that he was actually a he. He wouldn't take no for an answer, even when Sasori had threatened to use him as a puppet. Or when Itachi had threatened to make him a sacrifice for gods that Itachi didn't actually believe in.

It was completely out of character for Itachi to defend someone who constantly got on his nerves but he said the only reason he tried to get the escort to get the fuck away from Deidara was that it was interrupting Itachi's daily ritual of putting 235 and a half strokes through his hair with a brush that was exactly a foot long at twilight every night.

It was really a good thing that his weekly ritual of putting on nail polish wasn't the thing that was interrupted because whole villages lost lives for that.

Why do you think he killed his family in such a brutal way? His mother and father had stopped him in the only thing he ever loved doing for a family meeting to discuss something as trivial as his betrothal to some random girl from another clan because they wanted stronger ties or something.

He really couldn't care less about why exactly they had disrupted him, it was only important that they had. For that they and everyone who had been foolish enough to get in his way – and several who hadn't - had paid with their lives.

The only reason his little brother, Sasuke, didn't die was because of a, he wasn't at the family compound on that day. B – He was way too young to realize how important nail polish was. C – He had actually liked nail polish himself. And D – Itachi had lost a bet to Sasuke and as a consequence, wasn't allowed to kill Sasuke until he was 45 years old and living in one of the Mist villages.

Itachi always keeps his promises.

If he did that to his family, what would he do to a stranger who annoyed the living fuck out of him?

…

Exactly!

As beautifully orchestrated as death, destruction and general mayhem are to Itachi, Sakura, Sasori and Deidara, they couldn't afford to kill everyone of their escort.

As amusing as it would be, it would make a very bad impression on the population of Suna and would make them loose all leeway and any form of esteem they had in the eyes of Tsunade. Which they really didn't want to lose because then it would be a hell of a lot harder to finish carrying out their plans.

Difficulties and delays annoyed the group more then most things that anyone in the civilized world could come up with.

Itachi had been decided as Sakura's 'other' person because of his highly sadistic nature and the fact that he would be one of the only people who could stand to be around the three of them without spewing or dying.

Painfully.

Sakura started polishing her favorite dagger. It was long and curved and deadly and had seen to the deaths of many important _and_ insignificant people over the years. Every person who had ever been touched by the blade had died. Not a single one of them was permitted to live with the knowledge of a power that was hers only to wield.

Stroking the handle and murmuring words of contentment, Sakura eventually decided to go to sleep on top of one of the wagons, after receiving promises from everyone that no harm would come to her without a vengeance being obtained mercilessly.

Two and a half days after the sleep incident, the group finally arrived at the sound village. They couldn't see much of the village over the high stone wall surrounding it. They could only see guards ready to defend even as they checked people and luggage before their entry was permitted.

The guards seemed to be some of the friendliest people in Suna, smiling and waving while they were checking over entry permits and occasionally talking to a stray person walking past. They were – for some odd reason – amused that a group of Leaf shinobi were going to stay for an unspecified amount of time.

Maybe they knew about the marriage.

Inside the gates, they came across a town that looked like any other, minus the copious amounts of sand that replaced the usual scenery of grass and trees. There were market stalls and open shops and a multitude of busy people haggling over the unset stall prices.

The group was greeted by a blond female with a large fan on her back and a brunette male in pajamas that resembled a cat suit with what looked like a mummy slung over his shoulder as well as war paint on his face.

Sakura recognized them from the Chunin exams as Sabaku no Temari and Sabaku no Kankuro, the current Kazekage's - Gaara's – elder brother and sister.

They seemed partially afraid of him too.

"Greetings from Suna and the house of Sabaku," Temari said in an extremely bored tone. "We hope your stay is comfortable and no harm befalls you while under our hospitality. If any issues are to arise then feel free to contact either my brothers or I to resolve the dilemma. Please follow us t6o your new lodgings."

Pivoting on the spot, Temari growled under her breath about how she was going to make these people suffer for burdening her with having to show them around. She was of the opinion that the Leaf village and every living thing in it could just go and die and she wouldn't really care at all.

It was one of the only things that she and her brothers agreed on.

Smiling at the… pleasant thought of their slow demise, Temari showed them the way to the hotel first so that the guards could check in and then had Itachi, Sakura, Deidara and Sasori follow her to the Sabaku mansion which is where they would be living for the next few months. Maybe longer.

Neither Temari nor Kankuro were even mildly disturbed at having a group of majorly homicidal people living in close proximity to the place she slept at night. If anything, the both of them were getting excited to have the opportunity and the possibility of learning something new. Temari would have been satisfied to learn any new trick that she hadn't already known but Kankuro wanted to talk to Sasori and exchange their knowledge of puppets and how to use them. Maybe the other puppet master could teach him something new.

Smirking incessantly at the strange thought running through their heads, both lead the way into the compound, carefully avoiding anything that was either booby trapped or set to explode at a thought.

Eventually, after taking what was nearly the longest route possible to the mansion, the doors were opened for them majestically by servants who then proceeded to grab their entire luggage and take it to their new rooms.

Cautiously following the servants inside, the three men and one woman discussed how they were going to spend the next… rest of their lives, really. Debating whether or not to kill servants for entertainment value repressed the urge to actually commit a homicide – most likely murder – for a record of 42 seconds.

That was when the floor exploded


	6. Seducing Sasori

Chapter 6 – Seducing Sasori

Itachi did _not_ want to be there. He would rather be stabbing something until it screamed for mercy and then stabbing it some more, purely for his own sadistic pleasure.

Speaking of sadistic pleasure, her noted while absently checking his nail polish for any chips or damage, that blond girl with the four pony tails that just appeared to check out what the noise was seems to have a bit of a stubborn streak.

"Hey, sweets," he purred into her ear, waiting for a reaction.

He got one but it definitely wasn't one he had expected. She elbowed him in the ribs, glaring all the while.

"I'm no one's sweet anything, lover-boy," she hissed at him with more then a little venom laced in her voice before continuing the casual walk the group had adopted after removing themselves from the rubble.

"You will be soon," he muttered quietly so even he couldn't hear.

It would be fun to break her.

He was shocked out of his rather perverted thoughts by a hand slapping him shoulder, intending to get his attention but instead just managing to piss him off.

Not that it really took much to piss him off in the first place.

His fury was interrupted by Sakura asking Gaara a question, still speaking in the same high-pitched, annoying voice she had been using since she had first entered the Sand village, "Mr. Godaime-Kazekage-person-sir? Why do I need guards with me while I'm here? The Hokage said that you personally ordered that I have people able to protect me. Why?"

Good question.

Their curiosity spiked when Gaara started glaring at everybody – daring them to say something – while his siblings started laughing uncontrollably.

"F-F- Fan-girls!" Kankuro managed to stutter out between breaths and laughter.

"Gaara had fangirls?" Sasori asked, used to hiding his shock.

"Well, being the Kazekage and the head of the Sabaku family, of course he has girls wanting to get into his pants, un!" Deidara yelled for absolutely no reason at all. "That and he's prettiful!" he yelled again, blowing a kiss at Gaara before running off and dragging Sasori and a maid with him.

Everyone did the whole anime-style sweat-drop thing at Deidara's antics.

"Sasori said Deidara was PMSing," Sakura said by way of explanation.

"I thought Deidara a guy?" Temari asked with abject curiosity.

"He is. He's just rather feminine," Itachi snarled, getting randomly annoyed with the world and everything in it and planning to burn something _very_ soon.

Maybe he was PMSing as well.

On second thoughts, he was always wanting to burn things and he perpetually hated the world and everyone and everything.

Maybe he was just a little emo kid.

That would explain a lot of things.

All the while Itachi was debating – with himself no less – whether or not he was emo, Deidara was cackling like a madman as he dragged two people down random hallways so that Gaara wouldn't be able to find him and kill him.

Then again, it was Gaara's house, so he would know his way around.

Shit.

It was rather amusing to watch his danna get dragged along – willingly or not – but that might just be because Sasori had a dominating complex and it was fun to see when he wasn't in charge.

_He always had to be on top... He he. That sounded suss._ Deidara thought to himself, the child-like side of his personality warring with his calm, heartless demeanor.

"Show us to our rooms," came the cold order from Sasori when he spoke to the maid.

Bowing reverently, the maid smiled nervously and pointed to the room directly across the hall from where they were standing before scurrying off.

"Told you I knew the way to our rooms danna, un!" Deidara exclaimed childishly as he pulled open the door to the room and threw himself inside, pulling Sasori with him.

"You didn't say anything," Sasori replied, still acting coldly. "You ran because you did something stupid and didn't want to face the consequences."

Sasori's coldness confused Deidara. Usually, he was a mixture of warm and childish when they were alone, ditching their usual heartless and untouchable mask.

It had something to do with the fact that they had both lost their childhoods and were forced to grow up too quickly. They understood that aspect of each other perfectly and neither minded – in fact it was considered normal – when they acting as children, pranking and playing the games hat they never had the chance to in the past.

It had made them close friends with a hidden undertone of something more and neither _ever_ crossed the line or acted haughty and cold when it was just the two of them alone.

So why was he being cold now?

Deciding – perhaps unwisely – that he would somehow provoke the puppet master into telling him what was wrong, Deidara came up with a – possibly stupid and regrettable – plan.

There were four steps to the plan, the first being to act extraordinarily immature, the second to try and coax it out of him by enticing him with someone to torture, the third being to threaten him and the fourth, well let's just hope it didn't have to get to that.

Starting at phase one in his plan, Deidara ran to the nicely convenient fridge located in the far corner of the room and found some ice-cream. Laughing manically – albeit childishly – he pulled a spoon out of his… pocket – even her had no idea how it had got there in the first place – and started scooping up the ice cream, flinging it at Sasori, trying to get a reaction from him.

He got a reaction.

A scowl a glare and a raised eyebrow.

Sasori wondered what it was that was making Deidara act so childishly. Granted, Deidara often acted as if he was about three years old, but this time he was being stupid as well. Again, Deidara was often stupid but it was rare that he combined the two and then took it to this extreme.

Shrugging it off, Sasori walked to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, opening it while sitting down on one of the two beds in the room.

Never once did they think they would have separate rooms.

He lay down on the bed, ignoring Deidara's antics for a good hour or two. He had even heard the rest of the group reach their rooms, unpack _and_ go to dinner while Sasori just waited until either A, Deidara grew up (which was highly unlikely) or B, until he could figure out what it was that was making him act that way.

"Stupid Sasori, un," Deidara started muttering under his breath, now eating the ice cream instead of throwing it everywhere. "Phase two then, un…"

Sasori was confused by what Deidara had said. He got that it was phase two in something but that wasn't the issue. Personally, he couldn't care less that Deidara was planning something.

Deidara was _always_ planning something.

No, the thing was that Deidara had said _Sasori_.

To someone else, that would not have been an issue. Being called by your name was what people were meant to do, after all. But Sasori was not a normal person. And to Sasori, having Deidara use his actual name was strange. It tipped him off that something was wrong with his blond friend.

And because of the fact that Sasori was always called either 'danna' or 'Sasori no Danna', he knew that something was wrong.

And that it was highly likely his fault.

Going through everything he had done in the past week or so, Sasori couldn't find anything that Deidara would disagree with.

Unless he was getting him back for the stunts he had pulled when they were in Konoha – the ones involving calling him a girl, trying to make him wear a dress, etc., then there was really nothing that could have triggered the sudden change in attitude.

There was no way that Deidara could have found out about his plan.

Was there?

"Uumph!" was the only noise that came out of Sasori's mouth when Deidara jumped on him.

"I didn't know you could have the wind knocked out of you, un," Deidara semi-screamed in his face. "You're a puppet. And puppets can't feel things."

With those completely random statements and actions, Deidara go off Sasori and ran out the door, yelling something about eating banana jelly beans and shaving off Itachi's hair.

Thinking over his last statement, the one about him not being able to feel, Sasori laughed ironically.

_Oh, Deidara, if only that were the truth. I think I feel _too_ much when it comes to you._

Deidara – for a reason known only to him – decided to forgo steps two and three in his plan, probably deciding that it would be treason to torture someone from the sand village and that Sasori couldn't feel, so threatening him and torturing him wouldn't work.

Step four, you see, was to, ah, _seduce_ Sasori.

With that thought in mind, he pounced.

**[This chapter is dedicated to the people who alerted**

**Rezangel92**

**Fallenfaeire**

**Animeloverforeva59**

**Asmin44**

**ChocolatexDots**

**And pockymarawr despite her being a tenacious pain in the ass and refusing to help me ******** but she's a good author and friend**


	7. Dinner Date

Chapter 7 – 8

Chapter 7 – Dinner Date… or Death

Smiling sardonically at everyone seated around the table at the fanciest and most expensive restaurant in Suna, she wondered if it was really necessary for her little brother to get married. If she had to get dressed up again, she was going to kill somebody.

Maybe the one with the black hair.

Itachi.

Her smile widened at the thought of putting Itachi through some rather… humiliating and painful things.

He must have sensed her look or read her mind because he looked up at her with an expression showing her that he _really_ should die. He dared undress her with his eyes. In front of her family, no less.

The waiters came and served the first course of what was to be a very long dinner. Sasori and Deidara were no where to be found so they were left back at the mansion. Sakura and Gaara sat next to each other, one glaring the other attempting to initiate polite conversation. Kankuro just sat there looking at all of them with amusement.

But the worst of it all was that Itachi had decided to sit next to her.

With the current homicidal thoughts running through her head right now, that was definitely not a good idea.

On his part anyway.

Itachi on the other hand, enjoyed the looks she was given him, even though every single one of them screamed 'murder' and the way she way eyeing her knife, it would be a painful death.

He started laughing at the obscene thought going through his head. Temari looked at him strangely before stroking the blade of her knife pointedly; Sakura looked at him and rolled her eyes, used to his bipolar mood swings; Kankuro didn't even bother to look at him, just continued to eat his food; Gaara didn't react in any way, not even rolling his eyes or eating his food. He just sat there.

Sakura had no idea what to think of her new fiancé/betrothed. He was an enigma.

First, there were all the rumors about him being a heartless sociopath. Secondly, the rumors hat he was reformed. And to contradict everything was the way he and the people around him acted.

Random passers-by looked at him with fear – as was expected – but his own siblings didn't seem scared of him like they should have been if he was still sociopathic. Then there was the way he himself acted. The floor had caved in because of a trap he had set which led to the question of why he had tried to kill/seriously injure them.

It could have been for any number of reasons. Option one, he wanted to test them. Two, he was a sociopath attempting to kill them for his own sadistic pleasure. Three, he and his siblings were working together to take down the Leaf village they had tried to do at the Chuunin exams. Four, he had set the trap for someone else. Five, it wasn't him after all and she was delusional.

Pushing her thoughts aside, she concentrated on the present situation, ignoring Itachi who was still laughing for no particular reason. Shrugging it off as him being bipolar – not that she would ever accuse him of that to his face – she picked up her knife and fork hesitantly and began consuming her delicious meal.

She noticed that Gaara didn't eat any of his meal, instead sliding to his brother who happily ate it without a second thought, proving her theory that it was a common occurrence that he didn't eat.

Meaning poison was out of the question.

Observing the way the waiters treated him deferentially, she debated whether or not she would be able to get them on her side should anything happen.

Not that she was planning anything but it's better to be safe then sorry and all that.

Dismissing the waiters as possible allies, her thought drifted again to her two companions who had been unable to accompany them.

Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary in the way they had been acting around people they didn't know but when she had glanced in on them she had seen Deidara throwing ice cream at Sasori who had been just lying on the bed, ignoring every word and action. Seeing that, she had decided not to invite them, choosing to let them sort out heir own problems.

That word triggered another series of thoughts.

Problems.

Like the fact that she was getting married to someone she didn't know anything certain about. The fact that he had two siblings who acted as if they detested her. The fact that she had no idea if she would ever see her village again.

Oh, and the constant attempts on her life that had been happening frequently.

But those could be solved a lot easier then her other 'issues'. Simply track down who was trying to kill her, find out why and then kill them.

No difficulties and no regrets.

To bad she just couldn't go and kill every single person in the restaurant. It would solve her problems and relieve some of the stress that had been building over the past week. But then she would become a wanted criminal and all that jazz.

Sighing inaudibly, she sank back into her own thoughts, not noticing the three men who sat behind her and wouldn't stop staring at her even as they ate their meals.

Under normal circumstances, someone would have noticed the attention they were receiving but everyone was lost in their thought, eating or talking/arguing. And the one that did notice, well he really couldn't care less.

He was used to people staring at him.

Not to sound conceited – even though he was – all his life he had people looking at him for whatever reason. He was the heir to a clan – one he had slaughtered mercilessly, he had managed to create and master several jutsu's beyond what anyone had thought him capable of, and he thought that he was pretty suave.

Not that the girl he had his sights set on thought the same thing, but there was still time and the night was still young and any number of pointless sayings he remembered at that point.

Smiling what he and his many fangirls thought was a winning smile, he turned to Temari and tried to coax a response out of her that wasn't vindictive or violent.

He failed.

Glaring and making him glad that looks couldn't kill, she spun the knife in her hand, successfully distracting Itachi from staring at her not so obvious cleavage, with her other hand she picked up her fork and jabbed him in the ribs with it making sure that it didn't kill him, only hurt him enough to get the point across.

She failed.

With a look that bordered on indecent, he looked her up and down, drawling, "A feisty one, are we? Good thing dominant women make me… shake."

Form the way he said it, it was apparent that he didn't mean out of fear.

Disgusted but amused despite herself, she tuned out his insistent chatter and awkward innuendos and turned to her own meal.

It would be fun to make him squirm.

With that thought in mind, she pounced.


	8. Dig Your Own Grave, This One's Mine

Chapter 8 – Dig Your Own Grave

Chapter 8 – Dig Your Own Grave. This One's Mine.

Okay, so Temari didn't _actually_ pounce on Itachi.

She had too much self-respect to do that in front of a hundred people in a public area.

_In private however…_

Ignoring that thought, she adopted a casual expression and leant her body forward, making his eyes drift back to her not very flaunted cleavage. It wasn't all that obvious with the kimono she was wearing and yet his eyes kept dropping throughout their entire conversation no matter how much he was trying to keep them on her face.

Even if it was only so her brothers didn't slaughter him in his sleep.

It wasn't that he thought they could it was more that it would get him in too much trouble with both villages if he killed the Kazekage and his brother over their sister.

Not to mention that she would kill him herself.

Either way, he tried to concentrate on the conversation at hand, a casual conversation about jutsu's and the goings-on of the villages. Just a casual conversation between two normal people, right?

Wrong.

All the while they were talking he was undressing her with his eyes and she was shamelessly flirting back, both thinking that they were succeeding in their own plans when really, they were just digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole.

She wanted him to want her. He wanted her to want him.

A vicious, unending cycle.

One that seemed destined to end up in the worst possible scenario.

They wanted each other.

But they could never be together. For obvious reasons. He was a homicidal sociopath with an alarming superiority complex who had murdered his entire family and she was a extraordinarily dominant female with violent tendencies towards anything that lived.

And yet they dismissed the negative (albeit safe) thoughts from their minds and concentrated instead on the spell they were weaving around themselves.

By no means was it love. Neither trusted _anything _enough to ever love another. Both had been hurt too much to ever even contemplate the idea that someone could like them without any strings attached. In turn, hat meant they could never give their heart to another.

No, it was more of a temporary lust or liking and a feeling that they were in the same situation, as with every uttered word they felt a kinship, that subtle connection between two people as breakable as a moth's wing and as strong as diamond. That need to feel – even if only temporarily – that they are not alone.

It was on a subconscious level that they both realized that they wanted each other.

The same place that said it would never work out.

They were from different villages with different laws. She placed her brothers before her; he couldn't care less if his lived or died. She was insecure; he was vain.

The one thing they had in common was the main thing stopping them.

Neither was willing to make the first move.

It could never work out.

But still they hoped.

"I have a sneaking suspicion that you're gay," were Sakura's first words to Gaara after they had entered the restaurant.

Again she got the same reply of "Hn" from him, making her curious as to what it would take for him to say something else.

She had nothing to lose no matter what she did to him. It would be considered bad form for him to kill her and would put a severe strain on the alliance. Being Kazekage, he was supposed to have the best interest of his own village in mind and putting tension on the alliance was not something he could afford to do.

She could – in her own mind – try anything she wanted and not have that many consequences.

What could he really do?

_Well, he could lock me up, and then-_ cursing, Sakura broke off the thought.

_I'm going to be stuck with him for pretty much the rest of my life, why shouldn't I have some fun?_ She asked herself, sticking with her theory that she had nothing to lose.

So, she smiled seductively at him, making him instantly cautious because he could no longer see her hands.

Gaara just mentally shrugged and went back to glaring at nothing.

Until he felt the hand slowly creeping up his thigh.

_What the?_

Looking down, he followed the arm up to its owner.

Seeing her bright smile, the innocent look tainted with a hint of mischief, he did what he usually did when he was faced with an annoying female.

He glared.

Seeing his reaction, Sakura did two things. The first was to smile wider, irritating him.

The second was to make her hand travel higher.

Normally she wasn't this forward. But in normal conditions, she wouldn't be sitting next to him for the reasons she was now.

She had decided to drop all her acting and just be herself. It would be so much harder if she was nice for a few weeks and then suddenly changed moods or if she had random uncontrollable mood swings that was really just her acting and her personality warring in her mind for dominance.

She continued with her innocent façade. To everyone else in the restaurant, she just looked like an innocent girl out at a dinner with a heartless bastard. Okay, so the part where she was sitting next to Gaara may have put a damper on the whole innocent thing, but maybe she would just look like a damsel in distress.

In any case no one suspected where her hand was. Hells, she didn't even think that Itachi could have guessed. The only one who would assume such a thing was Kakashi, her old sensei and that was because he was perverted.

Even if he would have been right.

Not getting a sufficient reaction from him, Sakura started massaging is thigh under the table, becoming bolder as he tensed. She knew she had achieved her goal when he growled at her and grabbed her wrist, pulling it away from his leg and placing it firmly on the table.

Another glare and he turned to his brother, faking casual conversation just to show her what he felt about her doing that.

Or at least what he wanted _her_ to think he felt.

Really, she had noticed the nearly non-existent shiver that racked his body when she rubbed a hand over the pressure point on the inside of his thigh, making it relax and… uh… _feelings_ to make themselves known in his _lower regions_.

_You'd think that since they didn't notice me feeling him up then they shouldn't notice me blushing_, she thought in vain.

She was as red as Gaara's hair, which was no mean feat.

_At least he isn't gay_, she thought cursing the fact that she couldn't seem to control her mind.

Although she did continue rubbing his thigh.

Gaara on the other hand, was decidedly male. Having a gorgeous female with a killer body rubbing his thigh in a highly suggestive manner wasn't doing all that much for his morals in the way that if she continued he _wouldn't_ be waiting for marriage.

Somehow managing to decide – even though he really couldn't give a fuck – to give her – Sakura, right? – a taste of her own medicine, he put his hand on her thigh and did to her exactly as she did to him – that being rubbing his hand from knee to mid thigh.

Unlike him though, her reaction was _not_ one of stoic impassiveness. Instead, her entire leg tensed up as her eyes went wide and her breath left her lips in a rush. Apparently that spot on her thigh was rather sensitive.

Showing no mercy – like in every other aspect of his life, Gaara continued to put various degrees of pressure on the one pressure point that was about midway up her thigh.

Raising his non-brow at the look on her face, he casually demanded that she tell him why it was that she looked like she was in pain. "_Couldn't have a guest suffering now, can we?_" were his mocking words, making all sorts of violent mental images appear in her brain.

Many included the casual and perfectly normal dismemberment of his hands.

_But then he wouldn't be able to do __**that**__ and more!_ Sakura's perverted inner thoughts came to the foreground, giving her mental images that were definitely not good for the self control she had gained over the years.

_At this rate, you're gonna jump him and !!YAY!! more fun for me!!_ Came those evil little thoughts again, providing her with even more detailed mental images.

Time passed rapidly for the group, all of whom were too immersed in their thoughts to really care about a simple little thing like time. Before they knew it, the meal was over and the cheque was paid and it was time to go back home to a _nice, comfy bed big enough for two where they could –_

Both women cut of the thought before it showed on their faces in the form of a tell-tale blush, preferring to let the semi-conscious part of their minds do all of the thinking and planning for later when–

_Shit!_ _ If this keeps up, I'll never get back to the room before… er… __**something**__ extremely embarrassing happens, _were the surprisingly similar thoughts of the two kunoichi.

Making their way to the house, the group managed to successfully maintain a calm façade, all the while wishing they could just give in to the decidedly evil thoughts inside their heads.

When they got inside and to the doorways to their rooms, however, was when all hell broke loose.

In the form of clothes going everywhere.

**A/N - Apologies for being so very late in updating. Recently – as in the past few months – I started a LAW degree. Sadly, because I'm only fifteen – and my birthday was only last month – I still have a full school workload so it is getting very hard to update.**


	9. A La Lemon

To all those of you that do not wish to read a LEMON (smut/sex scene), please feel free to skip don to the next chapter

**To all those of you that do not wish to read a LEMON (smut/sex scene), please feel free to skip don to the next chapter.**

Chapter 9 – Severe Sussness of Sorts.

As she was being pushed against the wall, Sakura felt a hand slip under her shirt and start caressing the small of her back. A small moan escaped her throat and was quickly swallowed by his mouth. Tongues battling for dominance, she revelled in the pressure of his mouth on hers and the feel of his hands pressing roughly into her hips. Her hands acting of their own accord, they travelled down his spine and lower, the kiss only being broken to remove shirts – the clothing that was restricting the touch of skin on skin – the thing that the both of them wanted most.

Desire running rampant through their bodies, she didn't even hesitate as his hands travelled up the back of her torso to remove her breast bindings and bra, the clasp providing only a minor delay to the passion that was taking over so fast. Grinding hips on hips and mouths on mouths, the both of them lost all sense of reason – the reason that that had barely remained when his lips first touched hers.

Running her hands up and down his arms, she briefly admired the intricate love kanji tattoo gracing his skin, perfecting him. Gaara lifted his head from hers and slowly ran his lips, tongue and teeth over Sakura's jaw line and down her neck, enticing small moans from the back of her throat when he reached the pressure points and the spots only he knew were there.

Just as her hands started to roam lower, he quickly and harshly pulled away, grabbing her upper arms to stop her reaching for him.

In a show of dominance that she should have expected from his partially sadistic personality, Gaara lifted Sakura into the air and them her half way across the room to land in the exact centre of his bed on a surprisingly comfortable matress, managing to knock the wind out of her.

If you had enough coherent thought to form a sentence then she probably would have wondered – somewhat jealously – whether he had done it before.

But, as she was too caught up in the sensual motion of his body as he stalked his way towards her, it didn't really matter whether or not he had sone it before. All that mattered was the feel of his lips claiming hers and his tongue plundering her mouth, stripping her of all feeling but the immediate arousal coursing through her veins.

Grinning wickedly, making her lose what breath she had left, Gaara's mouth left hers, making her whimper in the loss of contact only to make her utter a purely seductive moan as his lips teased their way down the column of her neck, leaving little bites instantly followed by his tongue soothing the spot.

Tracing his lips down over her pulse, he made his way down her chests in an enticing arc, settling on the stiff peaks of her breasts. Taking one pink nub into his mouth, he teased and tormented Sakura, only to give her respite by stopping suddenly. Laughing slightly at the completely lost look on her face, he grinned at her before taking the other breast into his mouth, lavishing it and making her moan again in earnest.

Loving the sounds escaping unchecked out of her throat, he ran his hands tantalizingly up her sides, stimulating even more nerve endings and making her scream his name, too caught up her carnal pleasure to care who heard.

Distracted by his hands and mouth playing over her highly sensitized breasts, her mind didn't register that she had lost her pants and underwear until she felt his free hand cupping her most intimate place.

Letting her breath out in a hiss, she only recognized that he had moved when she felt the cold air nipping at her extraordinarily responsive skin. She groaned from the lack of physical contact only to have her breath hitch when she felt his mouth somewhere she had never expected.

His lips playing softly over the fleshy mound of her sex, he tentatively pushed one finger into her hot channel, extracting another moan and a breathless scream. Satisfied that she was enjoying his touch, he nibbled lightly over her already over-stimulated nerve endings, delighting in the wanton scream released from the recesses of her throat.

The erotic feel of his lips moving almost casually over the most sensitive part of her body made her squirm as she felt a spring coil deep inside her, creating a primitive need for _release_. He slid another finger inside her, speeding up the pumping motion of his fingers and her body reacted accordingly, her hips bucking in response to the extra stimulation.

Leaving her no time to catch her breath from her sensual and enticing screams of erotic delight, he moved his mouth just a little higher until he reached a sensitized little nub that sent spasms of pleasure wracking through her body. Getting the right reaction, he continued his actions – pumping his fingers in and out as well as adding a third, stretching her, preparing her for what was still to come while his lips, teeth and tongue continued their ministrations on the very sensuous nub.

Writhing around on the bed and loosing all control, she finally cam apart for him, screaming his name so loud it would be a wonder if there were people who _didn't_ hear it.

Coming down from that painfully pleasurable high, she was unprepared for when he continued his actions, making that spring inside her coil even tighter as the feelings built up again, promising more pleasure then she was sure she could take.

She distantly heard him moan as he discarded the remainder of his clothing, slowly sliding his body against hers as he made his way back to her lips, taking her mouth in a savage, bruising kiss, letting her taste herself on his lips.

Too lost in the feelings building up again in her body, she didn't fully realize the extent what was happening until she felt something a lot larger then his fingers at her entrance. Hearing the groan come from his lips at the slight contact, she hardened her resolve to finish off what was going to the most mind-blowing experience of her life.

Her mind made up, she wrapped her legs loosely around her hips in an attempt to get closer while he teased her with slight pressure and the liquid warmth of his mouth on her breasts again.

She was caught unprepared as he entered her in one powerful thrust, erasing all doubts, all thoughts from her mind with erotic mixture of pleasure and pain, taking over her entire body.

Waiting for her body to adjust to his size, he watched with barely concealed emotion, the expressions crossing her face at an alarming rate. When her body had properly adjusted to his length inside her, he continued the act with slow, sensual movements of his in hers, making her lags tighten around his hips as she begged for more. Speeding up, the thrusts becoming faster and harder, he adjusted her hips so her entered her from a completely different angle, bringing the both of them to all new heights.

Feeling his release coming, he put light pressure n the sensitive nub at her centre, making her moans hoarser and his groans more pronounced as he felt the tell-tale tightening of her inner walls against his length. Increase the strength of his thrusts until he reached her very centre, they screamed as they came together, their world shattering into an abyss of pure feeling.

When they eventually came down form their orgasmic high, they pulled apart, only to fall asleep ensconced in each others arms, uncaring what the morning would bring.


End file.
